NORTHWEST ARKANSAS, February 13, 2018 – With a signature combination of silky tenor voice and percussive guitar style, Raul Midón is bringing his category-defying sound to Walton Arts Center on Thursday, March 1 at 7:30 pm.

Tickets are $30 plus applicable fess and can be purchased online at waltonartscenter.org, in person at the Walton Arts Center Box Office or by calling 479.443.5600.

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Raul Midón has earned renown as one of music’s most distinctive and searching voices. He has been described as “a one-man band… who turns a guitar into an orchestra and his voice into a chorus,” according to The New York Times, and “an eclectic adventurist,” in the words of People.

Midón’s guitar playing is a syncopated, flamenco- and jazz-infused wonder in which bass, harmony and melodic lines fly from the fretboard in a way that seems to belie the fact that all the music is being produced by just two hands. If that wasn’t enough, Midón busts out his improvisational mouth-horn technique, in which he creates a bebop “trumpet” solo entirely with his lips, earning himself a spontaneous burst of mid-song applause from the audience in the process.

It is the sort of performance that led the Huffington Post to say, “he plays with such freedom and joy that his hands smile.” Billboard called him, simply and aptly, “a virtuoso.” Subsequently, Midón’s live 2016 rendition of John Coltrane’s jazz classic “Giant Steps” – which sees him fly through all 12 keys – has earned more than 1.2 million views via Facebook.

The New Mexico native, blind since birth, has released nine albums since 1999, Bad A** and Blind (2017), Don’t Hesitate (2014), Synthesis (2009), A World Within a World (2007) and State of Mind (2005). Midón’s questing musicality makes him, as the Huffington Post put it, “a free man beyond category.”

For more information, visit www.waltonartscenter.org.

Walton Arts Center is Arkansas’ largest and busiest performing arts presenter. Each year more than 195,000 people from Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma and beyond attend more than 400 public events at Walton Arts Center, including performances, rehearsals, community gatherings, receptions, weddings and more. Approximately 45,000 students and teachers participate annually in arts learning programs at Walton Arts Center, and almost 200 volunteers donate 21,000 hours of time each year to its operations. Walton Arts Center presents entertainers and artists from around the world including Broadway musicals, renowned dance companies, international artists, up-and-coming jazz musicians and more. As a non-profit organization, Walton Arts Center enjoys the generous support of public sector funding, corporate sponsorship and private donors, allowing audience members to pay on average only 45% of the cost of programs offered. To learn more about Walton Arts Center, visit www.waltonartscenter.org.